The dust reached us before the sound finished.
I turned my face into my left shoulder. Grit struck my cheek and settled along the edge of the arm support. Somewhere beside me, Aiden coughed.
"Away from the frame," Liora said.
We backed into the wider part of the passage. The door filled the opening from floor to ceiling. Its surface was dark stone crossed by narrow metal bands. The ordinary release sat beside it, untouched. Above the handle, the holding light stayed steady.
I had seen a door like it close before.
On a screen. In a route where Cedric went somewhere he had been warned not to enter because being refused had offended him. A missing return, a sealed floor, a body nobody reached in time.
This expedition had permission. We had checked the route, corrected the relay, changed the response plan and turned back at the condition we had agreed on.
The door had still closed.
